The timeshare class action lawsuit is one of the fastest and most profitable legal methods used in timeshare sales. A timeshare class action lawsuit occurs when an individual buys, or sells, a timeshare. Normally, this occurs in the form of an exchange of points that are applied to a particular worldmark. The problem comes from the fact that often times the actual owners of the timeshares are not included among the “point buyers” at the time of the sale.
This leads to a situation where a lawsuit is filed, when the owners of the timeshares are not included in the timeshare sales. Essentially, the plaintiffs are accusing the company that sold them their timeshare of negligence, breach of contract, and/or fraud.
Timeshare Class Action Lawsuit
One common place for such a lawsuit to occur is at developer credits auction houses where developers typically sell timeshares to real estate buyers at closing. At such auctions, there is often a line up of sellers and buyers at the same time, and often times bidders are permitted to enter the auction block with the hope of securing a timeshare within a few seconds, if not seconds.
The problem with this scenario is that since the bidders do not have access to the actual properties on the block, they do not know whether or not they have the right to bid on the properties. In addition, they do not have any opportunity to inspect the properties prior to the auction to determine whether or not they qualify for the developer credits. Without inspecting the properties or having a conversation with the developer credits auctioneer or without even understanding what the developer credits are, it would be very difficult for such a person to actually win a timeshare class action lawsuit against a developer who sold them an improperly placed or fraudulent timeshare.
Another frequent occurrence for timeshare class action lawsuit claims is at timeshare resorts.
Again, at such resorts vacationers typically are not allowed to stay in the property itself, but rather are subjected to what is known as a “motor room” where they are housed in a shared vehicle with other vacationers. Once again, such a situation could easily result in frivolous and trumped arguments concerning the validity of the timeshare contract or the contractual warranty regarding the timeshare’s long-term resale value.
There is also a potential loophole in such lawsuit claims where the timeshare owners may simply abandon their timeshare contract after a certain period of time without actually paying the money owed. Such abandoned contracts could easily be used by unscrupulous developers to simply hike up the timeshare contract’s payment amount and extract further monies from timeshare owners through such methods as locking owners out of their timeshare units at the end of the contract term.
Perhaps the largest area in which timeshare owners and timeshare class action lawsuit plaintiffs frequently come into contact is with timeshare resorts and developers.
The very nature of a timeshare contract is that it is a promissory note that contains several binding conditions regarding the purchase, maintenance, sale and exchange of timeshares. The most common among these conditions is a one-year limited warranty of title, which expressly provides that any purchaser of a timeshare unit (including a timeshare resort) is obligated to accept the conditions set forth in the contract unless, upon discovery that the conditions have been breached, the buyer must either give immediate notice of breach to the resort’s agent or pay the applicable fees to the resort if such notice is not received within the one-year limited warranty period. Obviously, this puts buyers of timeshares at the greatest risk of being subjected to deceptive and/or fraudulent sales presentations.
Sales presentations are made throughout the duration of the contract period, so the timeshare purchaser must stay abreast of all sales presentation dates to ensure that he or she is well-informed of when particular sales opportunities are to take place and which dates sellers are scheduled to close out units for the duration of the contract. If such information is not provided to buyers, they run the risk of purchasing a timeshare unit that contains conditions that will negatively impact their ability to obtain refunds or to seek additional compensation for their loss.
Although a timeshare class action lawsuit can be brought by buyers of timeshares bought via deceptive and/or fraudulent sales practices, these actions only result in court judgments.
Plaintiffs cannot sue sellers for violations of federal or state law, unless those violations were engaged in willfully. Thus, buyers of timeshares may seek monetary damages for injuries and other losses, but sellers cannot be held personally liable for deceptive or improper sales practices. Rather, such lawsuits arise from conduct that occurs in the course and scope of the timeshare contracts themselves.